BARBARUS


BARBARUS

I watched the debate
(if you could call it that)

moderated
(if you call it that)

by program host
Piers Morgan

watched in awe
the cool demeanour
of Professor Finkelstein

wish I were
that impervious to
ad hominem attacks

could behave like Norman
not Conan the Barbarian.

IN BED

IN BED

in bed
thinking of fairy tales

bed being
best place for
any kind of fairy
tale

inclusive of
child, adult and
seriously classified ones
the ones that
reveal
   the wicked witch is
not dead (reports of
her demise
strategically exaggerated) and Empire is
          forever always naked
just  trick of
the light
        and indoctrination that
goes by the name
of education

that we see
     what we believe:
Empire and Emperor
(its pure
    embodiment) is always
richly attired
  and powerfully adorned

no fear that this change
because fairy tale is the
dream of
all that abides
       supremely happy ever after

above history
beyond change

BUFFALO BILL HITS THE CIRCUS

BUFFALO BILL HITS THE CIRCUS

was at the circus
but the tent fell
down
    swamping poets,
academics
and other clowns

maybe the pole was broken
no way steadfast Shakespearean

perhaps
     Nietzsche’s concept
of evil which
I did lately relate
   offended every deity,
was tempting fate

a direct dereliction
of poetic duty

speaking of which
         when those poets
copped it
not much, to use my TS
word should be
bewailed as
    having been given
much
    lilting solipsism there
sweetest narcissism

stuck in
    their own heads:
what it
means to be
        this sort of man
what it means to
be a woman
    what poetry must
become in a Zuckerberged world

and
     what magic deserted when
we got skinned

those bodies even more
dumb and devoid of stuff

no
magical coat for me thenn

GODS

GODS

great
we got our journalists
picking his pockets
tapping his phone

if we
get enough dirt
on him
    can use our pages
to persuade him
not to
   talk about kingship
stay away
from such plays

and that one
who would phosophize us
away
    from our set and staid
and hegemonic ways

would
    think us
inside out and
      upside down

we got the video, had
it photoshopped, PR
refined smudge
            and smear aligned

shows her at her worst she
could ever be (though
neither so
    bad as you, or I) but
good
   enough to bring
her down

any one who thinks (gender
aside) is
         a worse-than-perverse-clown)

why
    do they think themselves
above all who
think what
they are
         told

why else this business? Why else
the rollers
        roll

serving you your world up
on a plate, we tell it as
freedom but
   we all know
            its fate

you
are
   what you are
and what
             we designate

so
   test us out
            why don’t you?
just give it
a try

nothing we cannot belittle
nothing we cannot dare not
cut down to
    basic size
who would have thought
crudity and super-
ficiality supreme
human virtues
who could ever have imagined
we couls write an all
new ten commandments
use all our
   new-found political
pressure to
sell them
     in the market before
entrusting them to God

you cannot challenge it
we are
       perfectly set
in our mindset

lie
is truth

and
slimy and obese-
brained though we
may well be

beneath this tawdry
bleary mortal flesh

we are gods
we are gods

     test our powers
     you will come to believe

TANTAMOUNT

TANTAMOUNT

I stumble
into the temple
past
the guards
and moneylenders
who appear
not to notice

my, how fruitful and prosperous
— a billion, trillion times fold

since
the time of Jesus

and there
in the inner sanctum
I behold a trinity
Pennywise, Baron
Harkonnen
and the hydra-
headed great
of Merkava

brooding on something
hatching their joint scheme

lucky, in fact,
our blessed fortune,
that all this
amounts to
all this
be tantamount to
is a
meaningless dream.

KANSAS GEORGE AND THE FLYING MONKEY

KANSAS GEORGE AND
THE FLYING MONKEY

Hello George
I am
also
   George

funny about that
isn’t it
    George

people might call it
a coincidence
but there
   are no
coincidences

where are
          we George?

are you the blue fairy?
are we
    both red fairies?
are we
   the munchkins
are we
     in Kansas, in Oz
somewhere in the 60s
down
     in Hait-Ashbury

carefree
    and happy
enjoying
a summer of love

now
   don’t go
wicked witch on me George
fall on that
ball all
serious

go total
flying monkey

jumping on that ball
as if it is not
all
   just a game.

WON

WON

we came for the big game

met on the intersection
of Meridian and
          Equator

we sat for the battle

you
waited in awe

they remained standard
first,
      before a piece touched

they insisted on rule changes
make the game more equitable
in other words
      their game more powerful

bishops
       and knights

should be made invulnerable
echoing their
feudal
      reputation
(“especially the white squared one”:
someone chirping
       from the corner)

and then
       it had to go, whole en passant rule
as unnecessary compromising
defences

and when
     Kings castle on the back rank

strength of rook
alongside be
                  doubled from
five to
      ten

to echo their supreme
nuclear strength

we came for the game
                 whole world watching

what
    a shock it was
           the day we won